Too tired to swim
by UWF-Fault
Summary: After spending a night writing letters, Amy decides to wake up and head to the gym. But is that such a wise choice?


Amy drooped forwards at her desk, eyes closing as she gently slips into sleep. "Yeagh!" she jolts awake as her upper body slumps onto the desk. Groaning, the hedgehog rubbed her pink head as she looked down at all the papers, pouting. "It's not fair!" she whines, "How am I supposed to write all these letters to the Governors!? There's so many of them!"  
Laid out before her across the desk was various heartfelt handwritten letters of protest to the different governors of the United Federation, each pleading to protect the cute wildlife of the Mystic Ruins, which she perceives is under threat by a new proposal to further the archeological site.  
She only found out about it during the day upon glancing a newspaper, she had been up the entire night cramped over her desk, letter after letter. She had written so many love-letters to Sonic that she had become very practiced at this, although none of those ending up bearing fruit.

Amy stretched out with a yawn as she glanced down at the cute little Chao clock, she sighed, "Great…" she groaned, it was 3:32 AM, she had been at this for a little over nine hours now, once she gets into something, she really commits.  
Forcing herself out of the chair, she walked across to the window and glanced out at the nightscape of Central City. The street lights lit up the empty streets with most windows blacked out, sleeping residents who won't be awake for hours yet to come.

Central City wasn't as scenic as Station Square, but there was a lot more to do here, life was busting, the fashion scene crisp, it is the beating heart of the United Federation. A city who can only sleep peacefully because of her heroic actions against the diabolical Doctor Eggman.

Yet so quickly do people forget, willing to ignore the ruins and debris still scattered, the everyday signs of the last battle had become normal now, despite it only being a recent event. It was this aggressive apathy which drove Amy up the wall. She scowled out towards the tall skylights of the government building, how dare they. Disgusting.

Sleep wasn't an option for Amy, she slumped back at the desk, picking up her pen. Hand sore, she couldn't concentrate, the papers were blurry, she stared at her words, but couldn't read them. "I need to wake up." she told herself with her self-righteous determination, "... those cute critters are counting on me!"

Walking into the compact kitchen of her apartment, she brewed herself a strong sugary mug of coffee, downing it as quickly as the heat would let her. She felt the instant buzz, her breathing quickened. Is this how Sonic felt all the time? But her mind was still slightly spinning, she was exhausted and this coffee was a temporary band-aid. "Exercise…" she muttered to herself, swaying out of the kitchen. But where does a young hedgehog workout at this hour? Her fingers snapped, "The gym!", it was open 24/7 after-all.

Having quickly grabbed her always packed stylish sports-bag, she grabs her keys as she scoots out of her apartment. She sprinted with a stagger down the lone street, as if she was drunk. Being tired as akin to being drunk, especially with a caffeine overdose zipping through you. The night's air was warm, distance lights from cars down different streets, but none passed her.

Living close to the gym she reached her destination within no time as she moved across the empty lobby of a skyscraper, various business on different levels. Nobody behind the reception desk at this hour. Taking the elevator up to the gym, she strode with purpose through the security door, which unlocked with her gym membership card. No staff would be in at this hour.

She walked across towards the frosted glass of the gym, only to find the door wouldn't budge, it was only then she noticed that a small sign was placed by the foot of the door. "GYM EQUIPMENT UNDER REPAIR, NO ADMISSION UNTIL STAFF RETURN" she blinked at the sign before swearing in a very unladylike way. Typical, this was a conspiracy, the world was against her.  
Behind those doors was everything she needed, the weights, the bikes, the running pads, a beep-test along a short running track. She pouted, sighing as she leaned on the door, then her eye moved along the hall towards the other door. The pool door.

Blinking, she gently walked over and pulled on the handle, it swung open for her. She glanced around and stepped inside, instantly she felt the heat from the water along with the stuffy air from different chemicals. Walking out, she looked at the gym's pool.

It was 35 meters long and roughly 10 meters wide, a small lap pool. Nobody was in here, nobody was rarely in here. She never came here, she went to a different pool. A nice pool with polished white walls and a soothing atmosphere. By comparison, this was downright grim, the blue tiled walls duly reflected the harsh flickering overhanging lights.  
"Thanks, I hate it" she sighed to herself, it was cheap and nasty… but, she was entitled to it. Although did she even have a swimsuit in her sports bag? That was a different bag, she had many bags for many occasions. Unzipping her bag she rummaged inside it until she felt the unmistakable nylon-spandex of a swimsuit. It was settled then, she had no excuse and those animals were counting on her.

Walking into the sterile changing room, she quickly pulled out her red one-piece swimsuit and changed into it. Being alone she kept her bag on the bench as she walked out and placed her gym towel beside the pool before diving into the warm water.

Amy began to swim laps up and down the pool, hoping this would wake her up fully so she could finally get back to her work of letter-writing. Although she found herself dragging. The caffeine was rapidly wearing off, her lack of sleep was really hitting her. The warm water was making her sleepy and sluggish, what she needed was cold water to wake her, not warm to ease her muscles.  
Being a stubborn girl she refused to relent, forcing herself to swim the laps at a diminishing speed and worse technique.

Finally, she panted weakly. Her eyes were droopy, mouth ajar and body tired. She was exhausted, her head was spinning, she felt light and weak. Her body felt heavy, she needed to sleep. The caffeine had crashed her, the warmth of the pool soothed her.  
She knew she was in trouble, but her muscles became jelly, hardly moving and the effect to kick was immense.

Out of depth, unsupervised and exhausted, Amy weakly thrashed, squeaking with a yawn, "H-Help!" After a whimper, she slipped under the surface.

Sinking deeper under the pool, the harsh lights above her blurred as she desperately would attempt one last effort to swim up.

This was swim or sink. Now or never.


End file.
